Master of Science in Bioscience Engineering: Forest and Nature Management

Safeguarding biodiverse and well-functioning terrestrial ecosystems is of essential importance. In addition to being a habitat to complex biocoenoses, our ecosystems also supply valuable products and services to humankind and society. Our fast-changing world, however, puts these ecosystems and their natural capital under severe pressure. It is therefore with good reason that environmental care has been defined in the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) as one of three leading dimensions for a sustainable future. Protection, restoration and futureproof management of forests, nature areas and the landscape they constitute take centre stage. Although ecosystems suffer from environmental changes, they can at the same time also offer important natural solutions to these changes. Climate mitigation and adaptation strategies can have welcome by-products, as is the case, for instance, with biodiversity conservation and the strengthening of forests and nature areas. Indeed, this specific example has recently been embedded in the European Green Deal. It goes without saying that this and other complex issues call for solid expert knowledge. Our Master’s programme delivers widely employable professionals in the broad field of forest and nature management. We introduce new technologies to map an ecosystem’s complex structures and functioning, ranging from individual growth rings to large-scale vegetation patterns in landscapes. To this end, we teach you to combine laboratory imaging, laser scanning in the field and sensors on planes and satellites with spatial analysis techniques. Equipped with this toolbox, you are able to study and understand the ecological impact of complex environmental changes such as repurposed land use and climate change. In so doing, we focus on the productivity, biodiversity and functioning of forests and nature areas, among other things. Furthermore, you learn how vegetation models allow for making predictions and calculating scenarios for the future. Finally, we teach you to translate your acquired knowledge and insights into substantiated solutions to complex management and policy issues. Specific themes, for instance, are sustainable forest management, wood quality assessment and development of innovative wood treatments, ecological restoration of degraded ecosystems, post-disaster risk management through climate adaptation, and estimation of carbon storage in vegetation.

By means of three thematic clusters, this study programme primarily focuses on a deepening knowledge of and insight into sustainable forest, nature and landscape management: nature management, forest management, and wood production and processing. Each of the clusters has a logical and coherent structure and builds on the Bachelor’s programme. Fundamental to our curriculum are course units such as Forestry, Nature Conservation, and Wood Anatomy and Identification of Wood Species. They allow us to fathom the way in which biological systems function, and how they react to environmental change and/or management. 

In addition to a specific deepening knowledge of the themes described above, forest and nature management requires an integrated perspective. Several inventory techniques, policy and planning processes and ecological models cannot be reduced to one specific and delineated domain. Course units dealing with these aspects have a broad approach and span the programme’s three thematic clusters. Take, for example, carbon storage potential, which can be estimated by making an inventory of the vegetation present in forests and natural areas and calculating their primary production. Scaling up to landscapes and involving modelling and management planning elements, and wood use, leads to an integration of several different aspects.

Finally, we teach you to translate your acquired knowledge and insights into substantiated solutions to complex management and policy issues, including the necessary communicative skills. In the context of integrated practicals on eco-system management we build on experience-oriented work through national and international excursions, and field work on specific projects and cases. Based on measurement data and other information sources, you learn to elaborate and communicate substantiated management and restoration measures in a policy context, among other things. 

The Faculty of Bioscience Engineering is highly international. As such it is a hub for coming into contact with students and cultures from all over the world. During the programme, we visit interesting areas outside of Belgium during the Integrated Practicum. Additionally, there are several ways to gain experience abroad: you can e.g. participate in an exchange programme during the Master’s programme. Naturally, a work placement abroad is also one of the possibilities. In addition, you can go abroad for a period of time as part of your Master’s dissertation. For programme-specific information, please visit www.ugent.be/bw/nl/voor-studenten/buitenland (Dutch only).

Our study programme’s application possibilities and our graduates’ professional profiles are situated in academic research, industrial positions, in consultancy agencies, non-governmental organizations and government agencies. International career opportunities in the (sub-)tropics are possible via closely related international organizations and non-governmental organizations.

Find out where our graduates work (Dutch only) and take a look at our alumni’s highly diverse profiles, such as Product Development and Innovation Manager at Unilin, International Programme Manager at WWF, Project Manager and Regional Coordinator at Prospect, Forest Group Coordinator, CEO at Sylva Arboriculture, Project Officer at BOS+ and Natuurpunt, Project Leader Wood Finishing at WOOD.BE, Academic Director at Avia-GIS, Academic Staff at the Royal Museum for Central Africa, Project Realization Manager at Vlaamse Landmaatschappij or Policy Officer at the City of Ghent’s Gardening Department.